Day 23: Whimsical Wednesday...

Hello Darlings,

Well Wednesday always kicks off with a Cheese Of The Week:

We had a talk from Rory O' Connell about the cheese of the week which was Fermoy Farmhouse Cheese. This cheese is produced in Fermoy, Co. Cork by Frank and Gudran Shinnick who have been making cheese since the mid-80's. They now make their cheese using raw cow's milk from Frank's own herd of Holstein Friesians. The unique quality of this cheese is that they use both morning and evening milk and uses smear ripening techniques in some of their cheeses. I highly recommend their St Gall hard cow's milk cheese which is mild and milky and is an excellent dessert cheese.

Following on from the cheese talk, Rory then baked two delightful cakes- a Tunisian Orange cake and then a cake recipe which was taken from Claudia Roden when she taught at the school in October 1985. 

Wednesday in the school are theory days, today being a wine lecturer from Ballymaloe House Sommelier Colm McCan with guest sommelier John McDonnell from Wine Australia.

We tasted six excellent Australian wines from Domaine Chandon NV, Yarra Vallley to Pewsey Vale Riesling, Eden Valley to a rather expensive Cullen Diana Madelaine Cabernet. My favourite wine of the day was Tim Adams Shiraz, Clare Valley which is reasonably priced at 17 euro which is distributed by Tesco UK and more information about Tim Adams can be found Tim Adams Wines.

Then we broke for lunch and we reconvened after lunch for a talk from the brilliant Sean Moran of Nood Tea who discussed the various grades of tea and the importance of exceeding customer's expectations through your tea menu. One of the teas Sean discussed is a Darjeeling Tea which is the perfect partner for Salmon or cheese.

Then the remainder of the afternoon was with Rory who demonstrated Penny's Vanilla Cupcakes which looked and tasted perfect.

Then some lovely lemon meringue kisses.

Some Coffee Cupcakes with Butter Cream.

Some Baby Meringues.

The lovely Pam then made a very fabulous 'Whisked Sponge Cake with Raspberries and Cream' with Malono Blahnik shoes to match- but of course darling.

Then Pam finished off a lovely Easter Simnel Cake with the 11 apostles on top- as it's an Easter cake, only 11 make it on top.

Finally, one of the highlights of the day, for me was this Picnic Chest above- take a look at that bread. Seriously delicious bread with the most freshest of ingredients. This above bad boy would set you back 60 pounds in London- nope that's not a typo!

Daily tip of the day: If the crust of your cake is too thick then the heat was too low, so next time turn up the heat.

Well folks, that's how I spent the first day of spring:

Hope you like,

D x